ON ST. CANNICUS, ABBOT OF KILKENNY OR AGHABOE,
IN OSSORY, A PROVINCE OF IRELAND
IN THE YEAR 599 OR 598.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Cannicus, abbot of Kilkenny in Ireland. (S.)
BHL Number: 1521
BY J. B. F.
§ I. Memory in the Martyrologies: cult: whence the Saint's deeds, such as they are, are to be drawn out.
Among the Saints who in the 6th century illustrated ancient Scotia, or present-day Ireland, by holiness of life, The Saint, whose memory in the Martyrologies, there comes to be commemorated on this day St. Cannicus, famous for the foundation of the formerly noble monastery of Aghaboe, afterwards called Kilkenny from the name of our Saint, whom the Roman Martyrology briefly commemorates at the present day thus: In Scotia, of St. Cannicus, abbot. Usuard had gone before Baronius, in whose genuine text it is read thus: In Scotia, of St. Cainichus, abbot. Among those more ancient than he no mention is made of him: whence our Sollerius gathers in that place that that holy Abbot obtained a place in the sacred Tables through the singular diligence of Usuard, or perhaps because Usuard reckoned him an abbot of his own Order, or because he was celebrated with peculiar cult in Gaul itself. Our manuscript Florarium also celebrates him on the same day thus: In Scotia, of St. Canithus, abbot. Among the more recent, Castellanus and the author of the Martyrology of Paris call him Cainicus at the same day. Wion in the Lignum Vitae, Ménard in the Martyrology, and Bucelin in the Benedictine Menology ascribe him to the Saints of their Order; but to Mabillon, both in the Acta and in the Annals, he is more rightly unknown. John Wilson, in the English Martyrology which he published in his native idiom in the year 1608, and, having revised it, put to press again in the year 40 of the same century, attaches a twofold elogium. In the former edition he has the following in English, which I subjoin in Latin: In Scotia, the deposition of St. Canik, abbot and confessor, whose pious life and miracles are known in the whole Christian world, but especially in Scotland, where he was born, lived, and died about the year of Christ 800. But in the later edition thus: In Ireland, the deposition of St. Canik, abbot and confessor, whose pious life and miracles are celebrated among posterity. He died about the year of our Lord 800. But that Wilson strays very far from the truth when he asserts that the Saint departed from this life about the year 800 will become manifest from what is to be said.
[2] The Irish city of Kilkenny formerly venerated our Saint as patron, at Kilkenny, with an ecclesiastical Office and every year on the 11th day of October celebrated his feast with an ecclesiastical Office of nine Lessons, of which six were proper to him, while the rest were prescribed to be read from the Common of Confessors, as they call it: which Office, excerpted from the Breviary of the cathedral church of Aberdeen published in the year 1509 and preserved in our literary furniture, receive here: Prayer. Graciously receive, O Lord, our prayers which we offer to you in veneration of blessed Caynicus, your confessor and abbot, and through his intervention, we beseech you, mercifully hear us. Through our Lord, etc. Lesson 1. Caynicus, who had received his race and name from Ireland, coming to Scotland under the monastic habit, served as a soldier for many years in the habit of the monastic. For at that time blessed Columba, a man of great sanctity and devotion, flourished in the island of Iona, by whom, when blessed Caynicus visited him, he was venerably received. Lesson 2. And while they were conversing together, St. Columba proposed various little questions of sacred Scripture, which blessed Caynicus unravelled perfectly, as it appeared, surpassing human nature, and made them clear to those who heard; so that blessed Columba admired his wisdom, and, being asked by him whence he had these things, Caynicus answered: When I was leading a solitary life in the desert for the name of Jesus, He enlightened my spirit and wiped away my rudeness by the spirit of His mouth. Lesson 3. But, counsel having been taken through the brethren, he sought Rome; and so, as he was journeying through Italy, he fell among robbers, who, when they were striving to kill him after despoiling him, the divine Pity so checked and drew back their arms that they seemed like immovable statues; but at the prayer of the blessed Man their arms were healed as before, and the robbers, turned to themselves, praised God and the blessed Man, and, asking pardon from him on bended knees, went away.
[3] ecclesiastical The three middle Lessons are to be taken from the Common of Confessors. Lesson 7. One day also there was brought to the blessed Man a monster, having a wonderful body of human shape without arms; when he had seen it, he brought forth a living spring from the earth, in which he washed the monster, and at once all the limbs burst forth perfectly from the mass. From a magician also, who had persuaded the people by magic art to worship him as God, having first made the sign of the holy Cross, he put to flight the demon who had deluded him, and openly showed that magic art to the people. Lesson 8. It also happened that the demon, the waylayer of holy men, set fire to the house in which blessed Caynicus was studying; and when the Man of God perceived that the house was kindled with a strong fire, he went out of the house, and left open the book of the Gospels in which he was then reading; afterwards, though everything in the house was consumed, the book of the Gospels was found without a stain. Lesson 9. By these and very many other virtues and
famous miracles St. Caynicus raised the dead, the sea made itself walkable for him, and the other elements obeyed his nod; he freed the soul of a certain man from the hand of the demons, gave hearing to the deaf and the manner of speaking to those deprived of speech. At length, in a good old age, he flew above the ether on swift wings, associated now with the angelic choir.
[4] Among the proper Masses of the Patron Saints of France and Ireland, published by order of Pope Clement XII, and is honoured with a Mass. one is prescribed at the 11th day of October, on the feast of St. Canicius, abbot, patron of the church and city of Kilkenny, which is of the following tenor: Introit. You have held my right hand, and in your will you have led me, and with glory you have received me, God of my heart, and my portion for ever. Psalm: How good is God to Israel, to those who are of right heart. Prayer: Almighty God, whose service is the highest and full felicity, grant, we beseech you, that, subject to one another in the fear of Christ in imitation of blessed Canicius, as children of obedience, we may serve you with free charity in holiness and justice. Through the same Lord, etc. Reading of the Epistle from chapter 12 of the epistle of blessed Paul the Apostle to the Romans, from verse 9: I beseech you, brethren. Gradual: Your word is a lamp to my feet, O Lord, and a light to my paths. ℣. I have kept the ways of the Lord, and his justices I have not put away from me. Alleluia, alleluia. ℣. Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile; he was a man upright and fearing the Lord and departing from evil. Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 19, from verse 16: One coming to Jesus said to him. Offertory: Cast your care upon the Lord, and he will nourish you; and delight in the Lord, and he will give you the petition of your heart. Secret: Receive, we beseech you, O Lord, the prayers and offerings which we offer to you; and grant that, mortifying the desires of the flesh by the spirit in imitation of blessed Canicius, we may serve you alone. Through our Lord, etc. Communion: You are my hope, O Lord, my portion in the land of the living. Finally, Postcommunion: God of our heart and our portion for ever, by the reception of this Sacrament grant us, blessed Canicius interceding, that we may cleave to you alone on earth, from whom we hope for an eternal inheritance in heaven. Through our Lord, etc. But enough of these things.
[5] That our St. Cannicus was celebrated among the chief Saints of Ireland we learn from various places in Colgan, in the Work on the Saints of Ireland: Among the chief Saints and Apostles of Ireland for in the Annotations on the Life of St. Finnian, page 398, number 24, he asserts that he is numbered in certain codices among the twelve apostles of Ireland; in the Catalogue of the Saints of Ireland, which James Ussher illustrated with a Commentary in the book On the Origins of the British churches, this Saint is listed among the first Saints who after St. Patrick, under the kings Tuathal, Diarmait, and the two grandsons of Muiredach, rendered Britain illustrious for sanctity; also in the Life of St. Columba in Colgan, St. Cannicus is numbered among the chief Saints who flourished in Ireland in the 6th century. Four (says the praised biographer) of the chief Saints of Ireland of that age, venerable fathers and founders of monasteries — namely Comgall, abbot of Bangor, Cannechus, abbot of Aghaboe, Brendan, abbot of Clonfert, and Cormac Ua Liatháin, abbot of Durrow — setting out together from Ireland, come to the island of Iona to visit St. Columba.
[6] Further, we read the name of the holy Abbot written variously in various authors. Usuard, as we have seen, calls him Cainichus; his name written variously. Castellanus and the author of the Martyrology of Paris, Cainicus. In Colgan, in the Life of St. Columba, he is written Cannechus; in the Life of St. Congall in our Work at the tenth day of May, Cannicus; while in the Acts of St. Finnian in Colgan he is called Cainichus, but by Colgan himself he is called Cannicus. Ussher, at page 957 of the cited book, asserts that the Saint is commonly named St. Kenny, and relates that the place Achadh-bo, in which he had built a monastery of the same name — which in Latin signifies "field of oxen" — was afterwards raised into a city which today is called Kilkenny, which name denotes the Cell or Shrine of Cannicus. Whence that varied appellation of our Saint among the different writers is to be derived is wholly unknown to me and to Colgan; however that may be, I shall call him Cannicus with Colgan, the Roman Martyrology, and others.
[7] Why we do not present his Life. We surely grieve that we have no Life of this holy Man which we could usefully present to the studious reader. We have indeed one by an anonymous author in our manuscript codex of Salamanca, marked Ms. 167, which Sollerius mentions at this day in the Martyrology of Usuard which he edited: but it is of such a kind that, although Rosweyde wished to illustrate it with some Annotations, I nevertheless judge it wholly unworthy of the press. For in it you would find scarcely anything besides prodigies such as are read in the Office of the Saint already transcribed above, and these partly borrowed from other Lives, partly related so senselessly that they do not deserve credence with the learned unless they be handed down by a more skilled and more certain writer than that anonymous one was. That other Acts of the Saint exist, however, we learn from Colgan, who, both in the Acts of the Saints of Ireland and in the Trias Thaumaturga, frequently cites the Life of St. Cannicus, promising that he would edit it at the 11th day of October; which, however, being prevented by death, he did not perform. That this Life is different from ours is clear from the fact that Colgan recites certain things from it which are lacking in this one.
[8] Whence the Saint's deeds are to be drawn out. In the absence, therefore, of this Life cited by Colgan, I am compelled to have recourse to the extant Lives of other Saints of Ireland, and to gather what is narrated here and there in them. But before I do so, I would have the reader admonished of two things in general: the first is that the Acts of the Irish Saints are everywhere of doubtful credit, and written by writers far from accurate and much later in age. The second is that in them there frequently occurs the narration of very similar things, which they ascribe to various Saints; so that you do not know to whom they can safely be ascribed. Having noted these things beforehand, I proceed to the Saint's deeds.
§ II. The Saint's birth, which is said to have been foretold by St. Patrick: his parents: his homeland. Instructed by St. Docus, he becomes a disciple of St. Finnian, and then founds the monastery of Aghaboe. His familiarity with SS. Columba and Pulcherius. The time of his death.
The Saint's birth, which St. Patrick is said to have foretold: That the birth of St. Cannicus was foretold by St. Patrick, the apostle of Ireland, many years before he was brought into the light, the anonymous writer of the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick in Colgan is the authority, where, at page 146, chapter 26, having narrated that St. Patrick in Kiennachta — which region according to Colgan, situated in Ulster, a province of Ireland, is called Kiennachta Glinne Gemhin — converted to God a noble man, Sedna, with his family, and washed them in the sacred font, he adds this: there (in Kiennachta) he also foretold that St. Cannechus was to be born in later times, and would be an exceptional ornament and the common patron of that region of Kiennachta. Besides, Colgan, who seems to believe that St. Patrick foretold these things, reports in the annotations on the said Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, page 182, number 192: See the Life of St. Cannechus at the 11th of October. From which, and from its notes, it will be established that all things are true which are related of him here. For he was born in that region of Kiennachta, and is its patron to this day. But although the Saint was born in the said region and is its patron, who would say it follows from this that St. Patrick prophesied those things? From this it is only concluded that St. Patrick, if he in fact foretold such things of our Saint, foretold true things. However that may be, since no one, so far as I know, among the biographers of St. Patrick, if you except the anonymous author of the said Tripartite Life, makes mention of this prophecy, and since we can establish nothing certain about the antiquity and authority of that Tripartite Life, there is no reason why we should believe with Colgan that the holy apostle of Ireland foretold our Saint's birth, no authority of ancient monuments going before.
[10] Ussher, in the Chronological index of the cited work, writes that the father of Cannicus was named Laydecus, The Saint's parents and homeland. adding that he was a poet and drew his origin from the family of Dalan. The author of the inept Life mentioned above relates that the Saint was sprung from an honourable but poor stock, his father too being Laydecus, a venerable poet, and his mother, Melda by name, of the descendants of Maguais. As for the Saint's homeland, the author of the Tripartite Life in Colgan in the Trias, as we have just said, introduces St. Patrick prophesying of St. Cannicus, to be born in Kiennachta, a region of Ireland; and we admonished the reader in the preceding number that this is also related in the Life of our Saint, as Colgan, who read it, witnesses. Nor does our manuscript Life differ on this head, which relates that St. Cannicus was brought into the light in a place of the region of Kiennachta called the Valley of the skin: The Saint therefore, it has, Kannechus, was born in the region of Kannachte, in the valley of the skin; but he was nourished in the region of the descendants of Maguais, in the place which is called Kennbuge.
[11] instructed by St. Docus When St. Cannicus had already passed beyond boyhood, he sailed across from Ireland into Britain, and there gave himself to be instructed by a religious and wise abbot named Docus. I learn this from the following words of our Saint's biographer, related in Ussher in the Antiquities of the British churches, pages 952 and 953: When St. Cannicus had grown and was perfect in understanding, he wished to learn knowledge and to give himself to the religious life. He went to the sea, and sailed across into Britain to a religious and wise man named Docus. And he read diligently with him, and learned good morals. The same is also reported by those who edited the ecclesiastical Office of St. Cannicus at Paris in the year 1620: He (the Saint), his Office has, sought Britain, and, giving himself to a venerable abbot named Docus for literary knowledge and holy religion, remained with him for some years in docility and obedience. The Rev. Mr. Godescard, in the Work entitled Lives of the Holy Martyrs and others, etc., published in French at Paris in the year 1783, at the 11th day of October, among the few things which he writes of our Saint, relates that he sailed across into Cambria, a great province of England — Wales to the English, and le pays de Galles to the French — to Docus, whom he distinguishes with the title of Saint, thus: St. Cannicus, while still young, lived for some years in Cambria under the discipline of St. Docus, abbot. Who that Docus was, who is here honoured with the title of Saint by the learned Godescard, or over what monastery he presided, I have hitherto been unable to find: meanwhile, if St. Cannicus was instructed by a certain abbot named Docus, it is certain that he was indeed not educated by him in religion and ecclesiastical knowledge in England; for at that time neither monks nor abbots
lived there; and it is wholly established that only in the year 596 were priests sent into England by Gregory I to convert the unbelieving inhabitants of this island.
[12] he passes into the discipline of St. Finnian: then The author of the Life of St. Finnian, or Finnen, abbot, in Colgan at the 23rd day of February, page 395, chapter 19, relates thus that St. Cannicus, having now returned to Ireland, was educated under the discipline of this abbot in the monastery of Cluain-Erard, which Colgan in the Annotations says is today called Clonard and situated on the borders of Leinster and Meath. In this place therefore, he says, like the sun in the midst of heaven, he (Finnian) sent forth rays of virtues and of saving doctrine and of miracles, illumining the world. For the fame of his good works drew illustrious men from the various parts of the land, partly to learn sacred Scripture, partly to receive ecclesiastical instruction, as to a certain wonderful sanctuary of all wisdom. Whose names are the two Kierans — Kieran son of the craftsman, who is called Mac-an-tSaoir, and Kieran of Saighir; Columcille, and Columba son of Crimthann … and Kainnechus … And all these were holy men and full of virtues. The Acts of St. Finnian, reported among the Passed Over at the 23rd day of February, our Predecessors deferred to the 12th of December: meanwhile, since in Colgan, in the annotations on this saint's life, he is said to have departed from this life in the year 552, and St. Cannicus, as we shall see below, born about the year 515, exchanged mortal life for immortal about the year 597, no chronological reason forbids that our Saint heard St. Finnian as a disciple.
[13] I have not found the Saint's deeds under the discipline of Finnian recorded. he founds the monastery of Aghaboe. In Colgan and Ussher we read indeed in various places that St. Cannicus, in the lower county of Ossory, in a place called Achadh-bo, which Adamnan, in the Annotations on the Life of St. Columba, asserts is called in Latin Campulus-Bovis, founded a monastery, which afterwards, called Kilkenny — which they interpret the Shrine of Cannicus — seems to have given its name to the city and county of Ossory; but we have been able to find no chronological note by which the time at which that monastery was built by the Saint could be determined: whence we pass over these things. Now it remains for us to place before the reader's eyes certain things making for the glory of the Saint from the Lives, edited in our Work, of SS. Columba and Mochoemoc or Pulcherius, with whom St. Cannicus is said to have been intimate.
[14] Further, Cannicus, while already himself presiding as abbot in his monastery of Aghaboe or Kilkenny, [St. Cannicus hears from a companion that a fiery globe appeared around the head of St. Columba as he sacrificed:] seems at one time to have visited St. Columba. So we learn from the Life of St. Columba edited in our Work at the 9th day of June, which at page 232 relates the following: At another time four holy founders of monasteries, crossing over from Scotia to visit St. Columba, found him in the Island of Hinba, whose illustrious names were Congall, Cahinnechus, Brendan, Cormac. These with one and the same consent chose that St. Columba should consecrate the mysteries of the sacred Eucharist before them in the church. He, complying with their bidding, enters the church together with them on the Lord's day, according to custom, after the reading of the Gospel; and there, while the solemnities of the Mass were being celebrated, St. Brendan, as he afterwards intimated to Congall and Cahinnechus, saw a certain hairy fiery globe, and very luminous, from the crown of St. Columba, as he stood before the altar and consecrated the sacred oblation, burning and ascending upwards like some column for so long a time until those most holy Mysteries were completed.
[15] At the cited place in our Work, page 216, the following prodigy is read of our Saint: he rescues St. Columba from shipwreck by his prayers: At another time also, a very savage and dangerous storm pressing hard, when his companions cried out that the saint (Columba) should entreat the Lord for them, he gave them this answer, saying: On this day it is not mine to pray for you placed in this danger, but it is that of the abbot Cahinnichus, a holy Man. I am about to tell wonderful things: in the same hour St. Cahinnichus, living in his monastery, which in Latin is called Campulus-bovis, by the revelation of the Holy Spirit, had heard with the inner ear of his heart the aforesaid voice of St. Columba. And since it happened that after the ninth hour he had begun to break the Eulogia in the oratory, he swiftly leaves the little table, and, with a shoe clinging to one foot and the other left behind through excessive haste, he hastens to the church with this saying: It is not now time for us to dine, when the ship of St. Columba is in danger at sea. For Cahinnichus, repeating this name again and again, calls it to mind, that he may pray for him and his companions in danger. After these words of his he entered the oratory, prayed for a little while on bended knees, and the Lord hearing his prayer, immediately the storm ceased and the sea became very calm. Then St. Columba, seeing in the spirit the hastening of Cahinnichus to the church, though he was living far away, wonderfully utters this word from his pure breast, saying: Now I know, O Cahinnichus, that God has heard your prayer: now your swift running to the church with one shoe profits us greatly. In such a miracle, therefore, the prayer of both Saints, as we believe, co-operated.
[16] [he accomplishes in a short space a journey of one day, and sacrifices in the presence of St. Pulcherius: then] In the Life of St. Mochoemoc or Pulcherius, written by a contemporary author and edited in our Work at the 13th day of March, the following is read, which proves that our Saint was intimate with St. Pulcherius: On a certain appointed day, says the biographer at page 286, the blessed abbot Kainnicus promised that he would come at the ninth hour to St. Pulcherius at Liath. This promise the holy abbot Kainnicus forgot, remaining until the ninth hour of the day in his monastery, namely Achadh-bo in the region of Ossory: but having remembered, he groaned to God because he had not fulfilled what he had promised the Saint: and, inspired by the dispensation of God, he began to run; but he was carried along so quickly that he sang that very none in the monastery of Liath with St. Pulcherius: God, who brought him most swiftly, He knows what happened to him, because it was hidden from him and from us, except that he walked by his own strength. A journey of a full day for many feet is reckoned between those two monasteries, Liath and Achadh-bo; and St. Pulcherius ordered a bath to be prepared, and said to St. Cannicus: Sing Mass for us, brother, meanwhile, until the brethren return from their obedience: but St. Kainnicus would not. Sitting afterwards at table in the refectory, blessed Kainnicus cut bread, but the brethren saw a stream of blood running from the bread onto the ground. Then St. Pulcherius said gently to him: Lord father, let us return to the church, and sacrifice to God the sacrifice of praise, for this I and the brethren greatly desire. And blessed Kannichus the elder then sang Mass to God, as St. Pulcherius desired. And when the Saints returned after the sacrifice, they saw the bread shining without any cut: and, giving thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ, they ate it with spiritual joy.
[17] with St. Pulcherius and other Saints he blesses St. Mochumbe. And the same biographer, in the same Life of St. Pulcherius, chapter 4, page 287, has this: St. Pulcherius entrusted a certain cell to his disciple, who was called Mochumbe, and he first built there a church and a refectory. Meanwhile St. Pulcherius and St. Kannichus and St. Molua son of Coche and St. Mofecta came together one night to the same cell; and no house there was then roofed except the church alone. And that disciple, the superior of the place, said to them: Go you into the church, for we have no other house prepared. St. Mofecta, who is also called Fechean, said to him: No; but we will go to the refectory, although it is bare, and our God will not allow wind or rain to come down upon us this night. The Saints eating there, that is, in the bare refectory, and staying there, afterwards St. Molua said: In this place, in which so great charity has been shown to us, there will always be abundance of riches. St. Pulcherius said: This bare roof of mine, under which the Lord on this stormy night defended us from night and rain, shall be blessed, and a famous building shall not fail here for ever. St. Kainnichus said: A son of death shall not die in this place. Thus the Saints blessed that place, and their blessing never fails there. And as the Fathers were withdrawing from there, that pious disciple Mochumbe, the master of the place, said to them: Do you leave me alone here, saints of God? The Saints said to him: We shall be here with you spiritually; and you shall be a Saint in this place, and you shall come together with us to the judgment of God: and this sign you shall have. Then the Saints placed five little stones there in the holy cemetery, which to this day remain there immovable by the grace of the Saints, as a sign of their promise, and no one can move them from there. I have no more deeds of the Saint to communicate to the reader.
[18] Now it remains that we inquire into the time of his death. He departs from this life in the year 599 or 598. All the authors who have either handed down to posterity the illustrious deeds of St. Cannicus or laboured to promote his cult — all of these, I say, if you except Wilson, who places the saint's death more than two whole centuries later — write with unanimous consent that he departed from this life in the 6th century; but in assigning the year of the said century in which he died they do not altogether agree. Ussher, in the book cited above, page 957, relates that the Saint was born in the year 527 and departed from this life in the year of the Incarnate Word 599, thus: That St. Cainicus was brought into the light in the year 527, and died his day in 599, we have learned from our Annals. By which reckoning he would have lived only 72 years: whereas I have found in a certain uncertain writer of his Life that he gave up his happy soul to God in the eighty-fourth year of his age. The same author, adhering to the said Annals, writes in the chronological Index edited at the end of his work that the Saint first saw the light in the year 528 and died in the year 599. Following Ussher, the Rev. Mr. Godescard, at the place cited above, also binds the birth of St. Cannicus to the year 527 and his death to the year 599. Dissenting from these two writers just praised, Colgan, in the Trias Thaumaturga, relates that St. Cannicus was born in the year 515 and was called to the heavenly homeland in the year of our restored salvation 598, according to the four masters of the Annals of Ireland. Agreeing with Colgan, Castellanus in the Universal Martyrology and the author of the Martyrology of Paris also write that St. Cannicus exchanged mortal life for immortal in the year 598. Which of the opinions is now to be subscribed to, it is not readily possible for me to define.